**Contents**
[[!toc]]
# What is WPA ?
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a wireless encryption standard and the successor of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WPA has been supported since NetBSD 4.0. NetBSD uses [wpa_supplicant(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?wpa_supplicant+8+NetBSD-current), a cross-platform framework for WPA.
For setting up WPA, create the file `/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf` and paste following code, replacing your own SSID and Key:
network={
ssid="MYWLAN"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="MySecretPassphrase"
}
It's important to set your exact SSID and of course your exact key. Both are case sensitive. For additional parameters in the configuration file, please refer to the manual page [wpa_supplicant.conf(5)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?wpa_supplicant.conf+5+NetBSD-current).
For setting WPA up with [dhclient(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?dhclient+8+NetBSD-current), make the configuration in [rc.conf(5)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?rc.conf+5+NetBSD-current) as follows:
dhclient=YES
# Do not wait for lease; useful if no network is within reach, so boot will not hang
dhclient_flags="-nw"
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags="-B -i ath0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
Also, note that _wpa_supplicant_ lives in `/usr/sbin`. Depending on your file system layout, you may need to add `/usr` to the `critical_filesystems_local` override in `/etc/rc.conf`. Example:
critical_filesystems_local="/var /usr"
That's it. Now you can start _wpa_supplicant_ with `/etc/rc.d/wpa_supplicant start`, then restart your network with `/etc/rc.d/network restart`.
# Using _dhcpcd_ instead of _dhclient_
In NetBSD 5.0, you can also put a new line in `/etc/ifconfig.ath0` that mentions dhcp:
up
dhcp
This will bring the interface up and start [dhcpcd(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?dhcpcd+8+NetBSD-current), the new DHCP client daemon. If you do this, you can remove _dhclient_ from your configuration and change the `dhclient_flags` to `dhcpcd_flags`:
# Do not wait for lease; useful if no network is within reach, so boot will not hang
dhcpcd_flags="-q -b"
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags="-B -i ath0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
# Adding a new network
With the above setup, all you have to do is add the configuration to your `wpa_supplicant.conf` and then tell wpa_supplicant to reload its config:
wpa_cli reconfigure
That's it. With
wpa_cli status
you can track the status, and see if it authenticates. If you wait a moment, _dhcpcd_ will pick up the change and automatically obtain a new lease.
If the `wpa_cli` command generates a "Failed to connect to wpa_supplicant - wpa_ctrl_open: No such file or directory" error, make sure you set the `ctrl_interface` parameter in the [wpa_supplicant.conf(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?wpa_supplicant.conf+8+NetBSD-current) as:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
# Other Network Configurations
_wpa_supplicant_ can also connect to other network configurations. These configurations can be given different priorities using the `priority` field, with a higher number indicating a higher priority.
## Unprotected Networks
network={
ssid="MYUNPROTECTEDWLAN"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=NONE
priority=100
}
## WEP encryption
WEP is the weakest of current 802.11 encryption solutions. It is known to be completely broken; breaking WEP can be done in mere seconds. However, sometimes there is a need to use WEP in legacy networks. Here is a configuration if you want to do it with _wpa_supplicant_:
network={
ssid="MYWEAKLYENCRYPTEDWLAN"
key_mgmt=NONE
wep_key0="12345" # or 13 characters, or a hexkey starting with 0x
wep_tx_keyidx=0
}
Oddly enough, the `wep_key0` and `wep_tx_keyidx` seem to be undocumented in [wpa_supplicant.conf(5)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?wpa_supplicant.conf+5+NetBSD-current)...
You don't have to use wpa_supplicant to do it, though. With [[basics/ifconfig]] you can do it just as easily:
ifconfig ath0 ssid MYWEAKLYENCRYPTEDWLAN nwkey 12345
## Password-Authenticated MSCHAPv2
This seems to be a common configuration for password-authenticated networks:
network={
ssid="WLANSSID"
key_mgmt=IEEE8021X
eap=PEAP
phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
identity="login"
password="password"
}
## WPA2
**Step 0:** for NetBSD 5.0.1 use wpa_passphrase() to create a basic configuration:
wpa_passphrase My_world My_secret | tee /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf | nl
1 network={
2 ssid="My_world"
3 #psk="My_secret"
4 psk=b7d1304e45ebbdb66ebd458b2d89e6871ac1dcb1efae521beaa76fb78708fe9b
5 }
**Step 1:** and add the following changes marked by (+)
+ap_scan=1
+ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
+ctrl_interface_group=0
+
network={
+ scan_ssid=1
+ proto=RSN WPA
+ key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
+ pairwise=CCMP TKIP
+ group=CCMP TKIP
ssid="My_world"
#psk="My_secret"
psk=b7d1304e45ebbdb66ebd458b2d89e6871ac1dcb1efae521beaa76fb78708fe9b
}
+
**Step 2:** and add the following to ifconfig.INTERFACE_NAME with your own address values
cat -n /etc/ifconfig.wpi0
1 inet 192.168.1.23 netmask 255.255.255.0
2 !route add default 192.168.1.254
**Step 3:** and add the following to /etc/defaults/rc.conf
fgrep -i wpa /etc/defaults/rc.conf | nl
1 # WPA daemons.
2 wpa_supplicant=YES
3 wpa_supplicant_flags="-B -i wpi0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
# See also
* [wpa_supplicant(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?wpa_supplicant+8+NetBSD-current)
* [wpa_supplicant.conf(5)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?wpa_supplicant.conf+5+NetBSD-current)
* [Official wpa_supplicant site](http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/)